Systems and methods for hosted applications

ABSTRACT

In one embodiment, a computing device configured to execute a hosted application includes a processor and storage, where an operating system is installed on the computing device, an application platform application including a rendering engine process including a virtual machine and an integration process, at least one hosted application comprising a background page file, wherein the virtual machine is configured to parse instructions in the background page file to download at least one remotely hosted file for rendering a web page, build a document object model (DOM), and modify the DOM in accordance with a predetermined DOM modification rule to create a modified DOM based on the computing environment, and wherein the rendering engine process is configured to render a user interface page integrated into the computing environment of the operating system of the computing device based on the DOM generated by the execution of the background page.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.17/322,462, filed May 17, 2021 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 11,347,826,which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/588,270,filed Sep. 30, 2019 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 11,010,538, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/705,158, filed Sep.14, 2017 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,430,502, which is a continuationof U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/259,939, filed Apr. 23, 2014 andissued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,792,265, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/973,654, filed Aug. 22, 2013 and issuedas U.S. Pat. No. 8,799,771, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/843,549, filed Mar. 15, 2013 and issued as U.S.Pat. No. 8,775,925, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/694,166, filed Aug. 28, 2012, the disclosures ofwhich are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is generally related to applications and morespecifically to applications that manage a user's interaction with webpages.

BACKGROUND

A runtime environment can enable an application to be integrated intothe computing environment of a computing device. Typically, a runtimeenvironment is provided for applications to be implemented natively(i.e. compiled into the machine code of the computing device on which itresides). However, other runtime environments can be provided forapplications to be implemented non-natively on a computing device, suchas web applications which can operate within a virtual machine providedby a web browser that operates natively on a computing device.

A web browser is an application that typically retrieves and presentsinformation found on web pages maintained by content servers over anetwork. A web page is typically a file formatted in browser supportedformats such as but not limited to markup languages (such as but notlimited to HTML), scripts (such as but not limited to JavaScript) andstyle sheets (such as but not limited to CSS) that can be displayed by aweb browser.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the inventiondownload and modify web content to create interactive cross-platformapplications.

One embodiment of the invention includes a processor and storage, wherean operating system is installed on the computing device that configuresthe processor to create a computing environment, an application platformapplication stored in the storage of the computing device, where theapplication platform application includes a rendering engine processconfigured to render pages within the computing environment created bythe operating system by interpreting instructions written in a renderinglanguage and implement a virtual machine configured to executeinstructions written in a scripting language and an integration processthat enables instructions executing within the virtual machine to modifythe computing environment, at least one hosted application including abackground page file including instructions in the scripting languagewherein the virtual machine is configured to parse the instructions inthe scripting language contained within the background page file toconfigure the processor to download at least one remotely hosted filecontaining instructions in the rendering language for rendering a webpage, modify the instructions written in the scripting language withinthe at least one downloaded file in accordance with a predetermined pagemodification rule to create at least one modified file, build a documentobject model (DOM) based upon at least the instructions in the at leastone modified file, and modify the DOM in accordance with a predeterminedDOM modification rule to create a modified DOM, and wherein therendering engine process is configured to render a user interface pagebased upon the modified DOM generated by the execution of the backgroundpage.

In a further embodiment, the background page is stored in the storage.

In another embodiment, a resource locator indicating the location of thebackground page is stored in the storage and the application platformapplication is configured to download the background page using theresource locator.

In a still further embodiment, modifying the instructions written in thescripting language within the at least one downloaded file in accordancewith a predetermined page modification rule to create at least onemodified file includes inserting instructions into the instructionswritten in the scripting language within the at least one downloadedfile.

In still another embodiment, the instructions inserted in the scriptinglanguage call an API in the integration layer process.

In a yet further embodiment, the instructions inserted in the scriptinglanguage call an API in a remote server.

In yet another embodiment, modifying the instructions written in thescripting language within the at least one downloaded file in accordancewith a predetermined page modification rule to create at least onemodified file includes removing instructions from the instructions inthe scripting language within the at least one downloaded file.

In a further embodiment again, the at least one downloaded file furtherincludes instructions written in the rendering language; and the methodfurther includes: modifying instructions written in the renderinglanguage within the at least one downloaded file in accordance with apredetermined page modification rule as part of the process of creatingthe at least one modified file.

In another embodiment again, modifying instructions written in therendering language within the at least one downloaded file in accordancewith a predetermined page modification rule further includes insertinginto the instructions written in the rendering language within the atleast one downloaded file.

In a further additional embodiment, modifying instructions written inthe rendering language within the at least one downloaded file inaccordance with a predetermined page modification rule further includesremoving instructions written in the rendering language from theinstructions written in the rendering language within the at least onedownloaded file.

In a still yet further embodiment, the at least one downloaded filefurther includes a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS); and the method furtherincludes modifying the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) within the at leastone downloaded file in accordance with a predetermined page modificationrule as part of the process of creating the at least one modified file.

In still yet another embodiment, modifying the CSS within the at leastone downloaded file in accordance with a predetermined page modificationrule further includes removing a CSS from the at least one downloadedfile.

In a still further embodiment again, modifying the CSS within the atleast one downloaded file in accordance with a predetermined pagemodification rule further includes inserting a CSS into the at least onedownloaded file.

In still another embodiment again, the DOM in accordance with apredetermined DOM modification rule further includes inserting a DOMnode in the DOM.

In a still further additional embodiment, modifying the DOM inaccordance with a predetermined DOM modification rule further includesremoving a DOM node in the DOM.

In still another additional embodiment, the at least one downloaded filefurther includes a resource locator indicating the location of a pieceof content; and the method further includes removing the resourcelocator from the at least one downloaded file.

In a yet further embodiment again, rendering the modified DOM using therendering engine process includes calling an API in the integrationlayer.

In yet another embodiment again, rendering the modified DOM using therendering engine process includes calling an API on a remote server.

Yet another embodiment of the method of the invention includes executingat least one hosted application including a background page fileincluding instructions in the scripting language on a computing device,where the computing device includes a processor and a storagecontaining: the background page; an operating system that configures theprocessor to create a computing environment; and an application platformapplication that includes: a rendering engine process configured to:render pages within the computing environment created by the operatingsystem by interpreting instructions written in a rendering language; andimplement a virtual machine configured to execute instructions writtenin a scripting language; and an integration process that enablesinstructions executing within the virtual machine to modify thecomputing environment; parsing instructions in the scripting languagecontained within a background page file using the rendering engineprocess; downloading at least one remotely hosted file containinginstructions in the rendering language for rendering web page using therendering engine process based upon instructions written in thescripting language within the background page; modifying theinstructions written in the scripting language within the at least onedownloaded file in accordance with a predetermined page modificationrule to create at least one modified file using the rendering engineprocess based upon instructions written in the scripting language withinthe background page; building a document object model (DOM) based uponat least the instructions in the at least one modified file using therendering engine process; modifying the DOM in accordance with apredetermined DOM modification rule to create a modified DOM based uponinstructions written in the scripting language within the backgroundpage; and rendering a user interface page based upon the modified DOMusing the rendering engine process.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating a system that utilizes hostedapplications in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a lifecycle process of a hosted application inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process for rendering a user interface pagein accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a screenshot of a user interface of a hosted applicationdisplaying a user interface page in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Turning now to the drawings, systems and methods for locally managing auser's interaction with content derived from web pages within the userinterface of a hosted application executing within a runtime provided byan application platform on a computing device in accordance withembodiments of the invention are illustrated. In many embodiments, aruntime provided by an application platform enables the execution of anon-natively implemented hosted application. Application platforms thatcreate a runtime environment in which non-natively implemented hostedapplications can execute are discussed in U.S. application Ser. No.13/164,740 filed Jun. 20, 2011 titled “Systems and Methods forIntegration of an Application Runtime Environment into a User ComputingEnvironment”, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety. In several embodiments, a runtime environmentgenerated by an application platform is at least partially nativelyimplemented and provides an intuitive user interface that is integratedwith the computing environment of a device's operating system. Theapplication platform can enable a user to access, organize and discoverapplications, including hosted applications that can execute within theruntime environment. In many embodiments, an application platformincludes a rendering engine layer and an integration layer. Therendering engine layer includes various parsers and virtual machinesassociated with supporting specific web technologies including but notlimited to HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. The integration layer exposes anumber of APIs that can be called by a hosted application to makemodifications to a user's computing environment. In several embodiments,the integration layer APIs are JavaScript APIs that can be called by ahosted application running within the application runtime environmentcreated by the application platform. In response to the API calls theintegration layer can communicate with the operating system and/ornatively implemented processes to modify the user's computingenvironment.

A hosted application can be implemented using a background page whichgenerates at least one user interface page. User interface pages aregenerated locally using the logic of the background page, found withinthe hosted application's package stored on a computing device, andderived from a web page maintained by content servers over a networksuch as (but not limited to) the Internet. The background page is loadedlocally at the time the hosted application is initiated from the hostedapplication's package and is defined in the hosted application manifest.A hosted application's package can include an application manifest,located in the root directory of the hosted application's package, tobootstrap the application into an application platform (such as but notlimited to an application platform application) in order to share theresources of the application platform.

In many embodiments, the background page contains all of the logic ofthe hosted application. The logic of the hosted application can parseone or more remotely hosted text files that constitute a web page todetermine the content of the text file(s). From a determination of thecontent of the text file(s), the logic of the background page cangenerate a user interface page derived from the remotely hosted web pageby including or excluding content, markup, scripts or style sheets inview of the remotely hosted web page. For example, the logic could causeexclusion of certain, text, pictures, sounds or animation, cause achange in the layout of content, preventing the loading of a pop upwindow, and/or changing the text font. In other embodiments, any of avariety of predetermined page modification rule can be applied that iscapable of being expressed as a logical statement. The logic can includeor exclude content, markup, scripts or style sheets upon first accessingthe web page as one or more text files maintained on a remote server (bymodifying the instructions in markup and/or scripting language(s)contained within the text file(s)) and once again after building aDocument Object Model (DOM) using the text files (by modifying the nodesor the text of the DOM). Furthermore, the inclusion of content, markup,scripts or style sheets also includes the inclusion of applicationplatform APIs that can call for functions performed locally at theapplication platform or performed remotely at a remote server. Thebackground page can be implemented using one or more text files (asopposed to a binary executable file) that can include HTML, JavaScriptand/or CSSs that the rendering engine layer of the application platformparses to implement the logic contained therein in a similar fashion tothe way in which the rendering engine of a web browser applicationparses a conventional web page when enabling a web application on acomputing device. In numerous embodiments, a background page can loadJavaScript as the logic that conducts page flow control and injection ofstyling and functionality to the content and markup, CSS and JavaScriptderived from a web page to generate a user interface page. In certainembodiments, a background page is formatted in a markup language, suchas HTML, located within the hosted application's package. The JavaScriptof the background page can be loaded locally or from a remote server anddynamically pulled as the application is launched.

An application platform can implement a user interface for a hostedapplication using instructions contained within a background page togenerate user interface pages with content derived from web pages hostedon remote servers. In certain embodiments, a user interface page isgenerated according to the logic of the background page using a URL thatenables retrieval of a web page from a remote server that can berendered by the rendering engine of the application platform to createthe user interface page based upon the content found using the URL. Innumerous embodiments, a user interface page is generated by adding toand/or removing portions of the content along with the markup, scriptsand CSS retrieved from a web page before or as the user interface pageis displayed. Certain user interface pages may not, however, require anymodification in order to be rendered by the application platform. Incertain embodiments, a user interface page is rendered by theapplication platform in response to a user selecting a link, such as ahyperlink or Uniform Resource Locator (URL). In response to theselection of a link, the hosted application can instruct the applicationplatform to generate a user interface page using the web page identifiedby the link. In several embodiments, a user can interact with contentderived from web pages as a controlled flow of user interface pages inan experience akin to how a user would experience content on a mobileapplication executing natively within an operating system such as (butnot limited to) the iOS mobile operating system developed anddistributed by Apple Inc. headquartered in Cupertino, Calif. or theAndroid mobile operating system released by Google, Inc. headquarteredin Mountain View, Calif. Thereby, a hosted application manages userinteraction with remotely hosted web pages by generating user interfacepages from the remotely hosted web pages according to instructionscontained within a background page and/or obtained using the backgroundpage that control the flow from one user interface page to another.

Although specific embodiments of hosted applications are discussedabove, hosted applications can be implemented in any manner asappropriate to the requirements of a specific application in accordancewith embodiments of the invention. Systems and methods incorporatingapplication platforms configured to execute hosted applications thatgenerate user interface pages from remotely hosted web pages inaccordance with embodiments of the invention are discussed below.

System Architecture

Hosted applications running on computing devices in accordance with manyembodiments of the invention can manage user interactions derived from aremote web page formatted in a cross-platform language (e.g. a markupand/or scripting language supported by a web browser application) into aformat suitable for display as a user interface page. In certainembodiments, the computing devices on which hosted applications executewithin a runtime provided by an application platform can communicate viaa network with content servers that maintain text files and contentutilized by rendering engines in web browser applications to render webpages. In many embodiments, the text files contain instructions inmarkup languages, and/or scripting languages that a web browserapplication interprets when formatting content for display. As thehosted application executes within the application platform, the hostedapplication derives user interface pages from the text files and contentretrieved from the remote content servers. The user interface pages canthen be rendered by a rendering engine within the application platformto provide a user interface for the hosted application.

A network diagram illustrating a system that utilizes hostedapplications in accordance with an embodiment of the invention isillustrated in FIG. 1 . The system 100 includes a number of computingdevices 106 connected to content servers 104 via a network 108, such asbut not limited to the Internet. The content servers 104 maintainwebsites, including web pages and content that can be accessed by hostedapplications running on computing devices 106. Within each computingdevice, hosted applications can execute within the runtime environmentprovided by an application platform and can access web pages from one ormore content servers to generate user interface pages.

Although specific systems that utilize hosted applications are discussedabove, systems can utilize hosted applications in any manner asappropriate to the requirements of a specific application in accordancewith embodiments of the invention. The lifecycle of hosted applicationsin accordance with embodiments of the invention are discussed furtherbelow.

Hosted Application Lifecycle

Hosted applications in accordance with many embodiments of the inventionlocally manage a user's interactions by locally creating a userinterface page derived from remote web pages. Hosted applications areconfigured to generate a user interface page according to instructionsin a scripting language, such as (but not limited to) JavaScript,contained within a background page and/or obtained using the backgroundpage. The instructions within the background page dictates the injectionor removal of content (such as but not limited to pictures, animation,sound or text), and the HTML, JavaScript and/or CSSs found within thetext files maintained on a remote server to generate a user interfacepage. The background page is loaded upon hosted applicationinitialization and remains active in the background so long as thehosted application is executing. The background page includes the logicused to generate user interface pages from web pages retrieved from aremote server that maintains the web pages. Executing the instructionsgenerates instructions from which the rendering engine layer of theapplication platform can render the user interface page on a computingdevice and the integration layer of the application platform canintegrate the user interface page with the functionality of thecomputing device.

Thereby, a user interface page derived from a web page can present auser of the computing device with a controlled user experience,according to the logic of the background page executing from a hostedapplication's package locally stored on the computing device. Forexample, a hosted application can control the content with which a usercan interact, such as by allowing or denying a user's access to contentfound on a particular web page (such as pop up windows or particularimages found on the web page).

In several embodiments, a hosted application's lifecycle includes thegeneration of various user interface pages according to the instructionscontained within the background page and/or obtained using thebackground page. A lifecycle process of a hosted application inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 2. The process 200 includes loading (202) a background page. In certainembodiments, a background page is loaded upon initializing the hostedapplication. A background page can be loaded from a hosted application'spackage locally stored on a computing device. In several embodiments,the background page includes a URL that is used to load one or more textfiles from a remote server that include instructions implementing thelogic of the hosted application. Instructions contained within abackground page and/or instructions contained within files retrievedusing information contained within the background page can becollectively referred to as the instructions of the background page andare part of the logic of the background page. The logic of the hostedapplication is used to generate user interface pages from web pagesmaintained by remote servers. After the background page is loaded (202),a decision (204) is made as to whether a user interface page should begenerated. The decision is made according to the instructions of thebackground page. In certain embodiments, the instructions of thebackground page automatically load an initial user interface page usinga URL that directs the hosted application to access one or more files ona remote website that can be rendered as a web page using a web browserapplication. The application platform utilizes the one or more filesindicated by the URL to generate a user interface page. The URL can beloaded automatically (such as but not limited to where the logic of thebackground page retrieves a URL from the hosted application's packagewithout explicit user instructions) or manually (such as but not limitedto where a user provides a specific URL for the background page of thehosted application). The process continues generating (206) userinterface pages as a user interacts with the hosted application untilthere is no further need to generate user interface pages (e.g. the userhides, closes or terminates the execution of the hosted application).The decision as to whether additional user interface pages are to begenerated is made by the logic of the background page. The generation ofa user interface page is discussed in more detail in FIG. 3 .

Although specific lifecycles of hosted applications are discussed above,a hosted application can have any lifecycle as appropriate to therequirements of a specific application in accordance with embodiments ofthe invention. Generation of a user interface page of a hostedapplication is discussed further below.

Generation of User Interface Pages

User interface pages in accordance with embodiments of the invention canbe generated from content and one or more text files containinginstructions in markup and/or scripting languages capable of beingrendered by a web browser application. The user interface pages aregenerated from the content and one or more text files according to theinstructions of a background page that specifies the logic of a hostedapplication. A user interface page is generated by modifying the textthat represents a web page by injecting and/or removing content, markup,style sheets and scripts from the retrieved web page according to thelogic of the background page. Although in many embodiments a web page isremotely hosted, user interface pages may also be generated from one ormore locally stored files including content, markup, scripts and/orstyle sheets. Upon the generation of a user interface page, anapplication platform can integrate the user interface page with thecomputing environment of the computing device and render the userinterface page in the foreground of the computing environment of acomputing device for user interaction. In certain embodiments, the logicof the background page can generate a user interface page in accordancewith the requirements of a specific application, such as (but notlimited to) ensuring that a rendered user interface page can fit withina window of the hosted application's user interface.

The logic of the hosted application can parse the text file of aremotely hosted web page to generate a user interface page withparticular content, markup, scripts or style sheets. The inclusion ofparticular content, markup, scripts or style sheets also covers theinclusion of API calls including (but not limited to) API calls to theapplication platform and remote servers. A user interface page thatincludes particular content, markup, scripts and/or style sheets can begenerated by modifying the accessed web page first as a retrieved textfile and/or second after building the DOM of the modified retrieved textfile. The first modification of the accessed web page as a retrievedtext file includes parsing the code of the retrieved text file todetermine the content of the retrieved text file to determine thecontent, markup, scripts and/or style sheets to include or exclude froma user interface page. Further modifications can occur after a DOM isbuilt. In several embodiments, text or nodes are modified by includingor excluding particular content, markup, scripts or style sheets asnodes of a completed DOM.

A process for generating a user interface page in accordance with anembodiment of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 3 . The process 300includes retrieving (302) a web page. In many embodiments, a hostedapplication is provided (manually or automatically) with a URL fromwhich one or more files associated with a web page can be retrieved(302). As noted above, the retrieved text files can include content withmarkup, scripts, and style sheets from which a typical web browser canrender the web page. After retrieving (302) the text file, instructionswithin the background page determine the modifications (304) applied tothe text file by modifying by injecting and/or removing content, markup,scripts and/or style sheets. After modifying (304) the text file, a DOMrepresentation of the text file is generated (306). Upon generating(306) the DOM, the DOM is modified (308) by injecting and/or removingcontent, markup, scripts and/or style sheets within the DOM. Theapplication platform utilizes its integration and rendering enginelayers to integrate (310) and render (312) the user application page.

In certain embodiments, the application platform can either remove orreplace the code of a remote web page as particular nodes of a remoteweb page in a DOM, according to the logic of the background page. Incertain embodiments, a node including window functions, such as“window.open”, can be detected and fed into the logic of the backgroundpage. Thereby, the logic of the background page can make a decision asto how the window functions that imply modifications outside of therendered user interface page (e.g. resizeTo/resizeBy) should influencethe chrome that contains the rendered user interface page. The logic ofthe background page can replace the “window.open” code of opening abrowser window by replacing it with a script for generating a userinterface page using the details provided by the “window.open” code,such as (but not limited to) the URL of the web page to access whileignoring the other specifications such as a web browser window name,access to a menu bar, ability to resize the web browser window, andimplementation of particular scrollbars, status bars and tool bars.Similarly, the logic can parse the text of a web page to determine if“window.resizeTo” or “window.resizeBy” or “window.close” code is presentand remove or replace the code according to the logic of the backgroundpage.

In a variety of embodiments, the logic can incorporate custom stylesheets (such as by adding style sheets when generating a user interfacepage's “head” node). In certain embodiments, incorporation of stylesheets to a user interface page's “head” node is performed by theexecution of the following code:

  var style = document.createElement(′STYLE′); style.type = ′text/css′;document.getElementsByTagName(′HEAD′)[0].appendChild( style);

In numerous embodiments, the logic of the background page canincorporate functionality by integrating scripts or calls forapplication platform APIs (such as but not limited to an API thatenables resizing of a user interface page, for example to a defaultwindow size of 640×480 pixels). In particular embodiments, scripts canbe incorporated to a user interface page's “head” node where theincorporation of scripts to a user interface page's “head” node isperformed by the execution of the following instructions:

var script = document.createElement(′SCRIPT′); script.type =′text/javascript′;document.getElementsByTagName(′HEAD′)[0].appendChild(script);

In a number of embodiments, the logic of the background page controlsuser interaction with the hosted application by disabling or addingfunctions traditionally present in a web browser. In certainembodiments, disabling or adding functions is accomplished by adding orremoving various scripts or API calls that enable functionalitiesincluding (but are not limited to) the ability to cut, copy, paste,select all text, utilize a spell checker, resize a rendered web page orthe ability to manually determine the flow of web pages (such asenabling a user to view web pages previously accessed, e.g. back and/orforward commands) rendered by a web browser.

In many embodiments, the logic of the background page can generate auser interface page at any time after accessing the remote web page fromwhich the user interface page is generated, including prior to or afterthe DOM of the web page is loaded.

In several embodiments, the logic of the background page can monitor theaccess of a web page (such as the download of one or more text filesused to render a web page) during the generation of a user interfacepage and display a splash page while the user interface page is beinggenerated. In certain embodiments, the download of one or more textfiles used to render a web page is reported back to the background pagethrough the following function where the body of the function returns anindication of progress as an integer between 0 and 100:

  function onPageLoadProgress(pageName, progress) { }In particular embodiments, the detection of an error in the download ofone or more text files used to render a web page causes the backgroundpage to load a user interface page based upon an error detected throughthe following function where the body of the function causes aparticular user interface page to be displayed based upon a particularerror:

  function onPageLoadingError(url, pageName, errorCode) { }

Although specific processes for generating a user interface page arediscussed above, user interface pages may be generated according to anyof a variety of process as appropriate to the requirements of a specificapplication in accordance with embodiments of the invention. Renderingof user interface pages of a hosted application is discussed furtherbelow.

Rendering User Interface Pages

A user interface page of a hosted application in accordance with manyembodiments of the invention can be rendered within the user interfaceof the computing device on which the hosted application is executing. Arendered user interface page in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention is illustrated in FIG. 4 . The user interface page 400 enablesa user to log into a user account associated with the Facebook socialnetworking service maintained by Facebook, Inc. headquartered in MenloPark, Calif. Additional styling and functionality was injected into theuser interface page (that was not present in the web page that the userinterface page is derived from) such as a button 402 for launching theweb page in a traditional web browser as well as a link 404 integratingadditional functionality which was not present in the web page fromwhich the user interface page is derived.

Although specific user interface pages of a hosted application arediscussed above, any user interface page can be rendered as appropriateto a specific application in embodiments of the invention.

While the above description contains many specific embodiments of theinvention, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope ofthe invention, but rather as an example of one embodiment thereof. It istherefore to be understood that the present invention may be practicedotherwise than specifically described, without departing from the scopeand spirit of the present invention. Thus, embodiments of the presentinvention should be considered in all respects as illustrative and notrestrictive. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should bedetermined not by the embodiments illustrated, but by the appendedclaims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing device comprising: a processor andstorage, where an operating system is installed on the computing devicethat configures the processor to create a computing environment; anapplication platform application stored in the storage of the computingdevice, where the application platform application comprises: arendering engine layer; and an integration layer; and at least onehosted application comprising a background page file includinginstructions; wherein the instructions contained within the backgroundpage file can be executed by the processor to perform a methodcomprising: retrieving a set of one or more resources used to render aweb page; modifying the web page to render, using the rendering enginelayer, a set of one or more user interface pages integrated into thecomputing environment of the operating system of the computing device;wherein the integration layer is configured to integrate the userinterface page with functionalities of the computing device.
 2. Thecomputing device of claim 1, wherein the set of resources comprises atleast one selected from the group consisting of style sheets, scripts,content, and markup.
 3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the setof resources comprises a first resource with a Cascading Style Sheet(CSS), a second resource with JavaScript script, and a third resourcewith HTML Markup.
 4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein modifyingthe web page comprises modifying at least one of the set of resources.5. The computing device of claim 1, wherein: the web page utilizes afirst style sheet; and modifying the web page comprises including adifferent second style sheet for the user interface page.
 6. Thecomputing device of claim 1, wherein modifying the web page comprises:building a Document Object Model (DOM) using the set of resources; andmodifying the DOM based on instructions contained within the backgroundpage.
 7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the method furthercomprises: monitoring the retrieval of the set of resources; anddisplaying a splash page until at least one of the set of user interfacepages is rendered.
 8. The computing device of claim 1, wherein themethod further comprises: detecting user interactions with a first userinterface page of the set of user interface pages; and generating asecond user interface page based on the detected user interactions andthe instructions contained within the background page file.
 9. Thecomputing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions contained withinthe background page file can be further executed to cause the processorto, upon detecting an error in the retrieval of at least one of the setof resources, load a user interface page.
 10. The computing device ofclaim 1, wherein at least one user interface page of the set of userinterface pages comprises at least one interface element that integratesadditional functionality that was not in the web page from which the atleast one user interface page was derived.
 11. The computing device ofclaim 1, wherein the instructions contained within the background pagefile comprise a set of one or more API calls for functions to beperformed locally on the computing device.
 12. The computing device ofclaim 1, wherein: the set of resources are retrieved from a remoteserver; and the instructions contained within the background page filecomprise a set of one or more API calls for functions to be performed ata remote server.
 13. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the set ofresources comprises one or more text files.
 14. A non-transitory machinereadable medium containing program instructions that are executable by aset of one or more processors to perform a method comprising: providinga rendering engine layer and an integration layer; and parsing abackground page file of a hosted application, the background page fileincluding instructions that can be executed by the processor to:retrieve a set of one or more resources used to render a web page; andmodify the web page to render, using the rendering engine layer, a setof one or more user interface pages integrated into the computingenvironment of the operating system of the computing device; wherein theintegration layer is configured to integrate the user interface pagewith functionalities of the computing device.
 15. The non-transitorymachine readable medium of claim 14, wherein the set of resourcescomprises at least one selected from the group consisting of stylesheets, scripts, content, and markup.
 16. The non-transitory machinereadable medium of claim 14, wherein modifying the web page comprises:building a Document Object Model (DOM) using the set of resources; andmodifying the DOM based on instructions contained within the backgroundpage.
 17. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14,wherein the method further comprises: monitoring the retrieval of theset of resources; and displaying a splash page until at least one of theset of user interface pages is rendered.
 18. The non-transitory machinereadable medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:detecting user interactions with a first user interface page of the setof user interface pages; and generating a second user interface pagebased on the detected user interactions and the instructions containedwithin the background page file.
 19. The non-transitory machine readablemedium of claim 14, wherein at least one user interface page of the setof user interface pages comprises at least one interface element thatintegrates additional functionality that was not in the web page fromwhich the at least one user interface page was derived.
 20. Thenon-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14, wherein: the set ofresources are retrieved from a remote server; and the instructionscontained within the background page file comprise: a set of one or moreAPI calls for functions to be performed locally on the computing device;and a set of one or more API calls for functions to be performed at aremote server.